1.1 Open education aims
A child studying inside a classroom by Russell Watkins is licensed under CC BY 4.0
Education is a fundamental human right, but millions of people lack access to it. This is the reason why one of the United Nations (2015) Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) covers ‘Quality Education’, aiming to ‘Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all’ (SDG4).
Lacking access to education may be due to various factors, including financial barriers, residing in conflict zones, restrictions preventing women and girls from obtaining education, and limited availability of educational institutions. Open education aims to remove some of those barriers and is an important route to achieving SDG4. In this unit you’ll consider additional barriers that may prevent people from accessing and participating effectively in education and will look in detail at how open education can help achieve quality education for all.